Harriet Tubman, who helped dozens of people escape slavery via the so-called Underground Railway before the American Civil War, is going to appear on the new $20 bill.
Tubman escaped herself from a plantation in Maryland and later campaigned against slavery and for the right of women to vote, prior to her death in 1913.
The decision for Tubman to replace the seventh US President, Andrew Jackson, has been hailed by the National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People as a "long delayed tribute".
A recipient of an only $20 monthly pension, in a long delayed tribute, #HarrietTubman will now grace the $20 bill. pic.twitter.com/Da2iscRQER
— NAACP (@NAACP) 20 April 2016
Catherine Clinton, who wrote 'Harriet Tubman: The Road to Freedom', is quoted in the Los Angeles Times as saying: "I felt that people needed to know how amazing her story was.
"She just wasn't a figure from the Underground Railroad, she just wasn't a self-emancipated slave, but she was a brave warrior in the fight against slavery.
"Harriet Tubman, I found, was such an important figure to so many because she represented the concept of one person making a difference."
Harriet Tubman has been trending on the social media website Twitter on Thursday with more than 570k tweets published about her.